r/Amd_Intel_Nvidia • u/TruthPhoenixV • 2d ago

China strikes back at Trump with 34 percent tariff — bans some rare earth exports to the U.S.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/china-strikes-back-on-trump-tariffs-bans-rare-earth-exports-to-the-u-s
248 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

14

u/Cipher-IX 2d ago

Data that I've found shows China being up to 70% of our rare earth imports. If they were to cut them off in full you could kiss any semblance of American made chips goodbye. It would fundamentally cripple domestic chip production.

Mango Unchained needs to be stopped.

2

u/benefit420 2d ago

Actually, I just double checked. It’s not a matter of us not having access to rare earth minerals. It’s just significantly cheaper to make in China (for now) Might that change? Who knows but chip manufactures won’t just lay over and die lol.

3

u/Alienfreak 2d ago

Its not even about cheaper. Its a super dirty process with toxic slurry evaporating pools included. China does basically all of it because everybody was happy that not they had to do it.

4

u/winmox 2d ago

yep this is the truth. China is happy with exploiting its own people as there is no consequence as long as CCP is ruling and making money

1

u/LAHurricane 1d ago

That or exploit the people of other poor nations in Africa and South America.

-1

u/winmox 2d ago edited 2d ago

Data that I've found shows China being up to 70% of our rare earth imports. If they were to cut them off in full you could kiss any semblance of American made chips goodbye. It would fundamentally cripple domestic chip production.

Except China dares not to push it into an extreme level.

Because China is experiencing increaseing deflation and the consumption downgrading is serious. If China further axes its own foreign exchange earnings, it is that CCP essentially wants to end its life of dictatorship. The current sign is that the housing market in China has collapsed. China indeed has built more housing then what the pupulation can afford. The birth rate in China is also historically low and China doesn't import immigrants.

The Great Firewall and many other surveillance systems running in China which are used for brainwashing and cersorship or maintaining dictaroship need the technology from US (Cisco helped build the 1st gen). China still can't make competitive chips and even Chinese are not using chips made in China in their daily life, from processor to operating systems.

China is just a barking bog which barely bites. When Nancy Patricia Pelosi visited Taiwan, China threaten to "take actions", but what happened indeed?

Russia has been a solid ally of China, but even so, Russians made a joke about China decades ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%27s_final_warning

"China's final warning" (Russian: последнее китайское предупреждение, romanized: posledneye kitayskoye preduprezhdeniye) is a Russian ironic idiom originating from the Soviet Union that refers to a warning that carries no real consequences.

2

u/Both-Election3382 2d ago

Its fine to cut off the US because europe will happily buy it with their renewed push for semiconductors and independence from the us

0

u/winmox 2d ago

China will give in faster unless Xi doesn't want ruling any more

1

u/Next_Poem7318 1d ago

Dah comrade 

13

u/CarsonWentzGOAT1 2d ago

The rare earth export ban is going to sting a lot more than any tariffs China puts.

1

u/Kange109 2d ago

It will just route thru Vietnam or India or some other country. Just pay abit more for the middleman's gravy.

10

u/Suitable_Froyo4930 2d ago

Art of the deal.

1

u/Current_Finding_4066 2d ago

Trump being in position of strength and bullying. This is his way.

11

u/xoxo470 2d ago

nice.

6

u/WowSoHuTao 2d ago

Well did Trump think China won’t do this? Nah

10

u/plant0316 2d ago

I’m more scared about what the trump administration will do to our environment and national parks. I have read an article that the US actually has a lot of reserve of rare metals, but we have not been excavating them because it is either protected or the fact that the labor is cheaper abroad.

4

u/Lakku-82 2d ago

This is true in a lot of places. Afghanistan has a ton of rare earth but nobody is there to extract it, kind of like how Middle East couldn’t extract oil before others showed up and did it for them.

3

u/ConsistentAd5170 2d ago

At the current rate trump is on track of being the most environmentally friendly president ever no cap, moving the world into recession, twice!

1

u/VyseX 2d ago

'Rare metals' aren't actually rare. They are not mined due to economic, technical or environmental barriers - not because they are physically scarce.

Many countries could start mining them if they were willing to pay the price.

-6

u/SurpriseAgreeable241 2d ago

The USA can be completely self sufficient if it wants, we have everything we import here it's just easier to import.

6

u/biepbupbieeep 2d ago

Except for eggs

-5

u/SurpriseAgreeable241 2d ago

We have eggs

6

u/Both-Election3382 2d ago

Youre about to find out

3

u/Lord_Muddbutter 2d ago

We went through this sort of talk 80-100 years ago and it gave us the great depression.

1

u/LAHurricane 1d ago

It's not wrong. The US is like the only country on earth that could be 100% self-sufficient and successful in doing so. It's just exponentially cheaper to exploit 3rd world countries than nationalize all industries.

3

u/Opening_Persimmon_71 2d ago

Everything will just be worse and more expensive if they do.

1

u/Zimaut 1d ago

Children yearn for the mine

6

u/gargamel314 2d ago

China: Yay! We're the new USA! We're the new USA!

4

u/Ensaru4 2d ago

It begins

4

u/picawo99 2d ago

Orange Man - Empire strikes again

7

u/IusedtoloveStarWars 2d ago

China was always going to ban rare earth exports to the US. It’s why they wanted to corner the market in the first place. This just sped up the timeline and forced Chinas hand.

1

u/juGGaKNot4 1d ago

Trump playing 5d chess as he always does

1

u/Next_Poem7318 1d ago

How is this 5d chess? 

“Haha you were going to fire me in 10 years and pay me that whole time so I, a genius, am shitting on your desk so you fire me now!” 

1

u/juGGaKNot4 1d ago

That's how your post reads. China was trying to get there all strategic like when they had full control and then trump is like tariffs, bitch.

2

u/kevin28115 2d ago

Good job USA the rare earth metal was what we needed.

2

u/thinkingperson 1d ago

Ok, who was the smart guy who thought China will just bow down to Trump?

2

u/keveazy 1d ago

Well it seems the US being the biggest customer is a bunch of BS.